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UGA's final admissions policy must consider more than numbers

Posted: Sunday, December 09, 2001

For the first time in five years, the University of Georgia's admissions policy is free of legal challenges. Until recently, a number of lawsuits had attacked UGA's policy of giving certain underrepresented groups slight advantages in the admissions process.

In 1996, the university decided to replace its two-tiered admissions system which admitted minority students at lower thresholds than white students. The new policy admitted the majority of students -- 80 to 90 percent -- on grades and test scores alone. For those students whose academics had them on the cusp of being admitted, the university used a Total Student Index (TSI) formula to decide who was accepted.

The TSI formula still considered grades and test scores, but it also awarded ''points'' to those students who came from underrepresented groups at UGA. Under the original formula, a variety of factors determined when points would be awarded to certain students, including if students were male, non-white, from counties that were economically disadvantaged or rural, or children of UGA alumni. In 1999, the university stopped giving points for male students. Last year, the points for non-white students were also dropped.

After losing several court battles, the university conceded defeat on Nov. 9 and opted not to defend this policy before the U.S. Supreme Court.

With its legal challenges over for the time being, university officials set out to develop a new admissions policy that could pass legal muster and bring the best prepared, most diverse student body to UGA.

Officials soon discovered that reaching such a lofty goal was going to take a significant amount of time and consideration. Unfortunately, time wasn't something they had a lot of. The deadline for making admissions decisions for the freshman class of 2002 is quickly bearing down. So, the university decided to create a temporary admissions plan that would allow some breathing room for crafting a new, permanent policy.

The temporary policy is strictly by the numbers. The next UGA freshman class will be admitted solely on the basis of high school grades in core courses and standardized test scores. No other criterion -- extracurricular activities, community involvement, family ties to the university -- will be considered.

The only two exceptions to this stripped-down policy are athletes, who will be admitted according to lower NCAA standards, and specially talented students ''institutionally admitted'' by UGA President Michael Adams.

When designing a permanent admissions policy, university officials say they will consider all the options, from making SAT scores less significant to requiring an essay. Unlike the temporary policy, the final plan is expected to go beyond grades and test scores so that the ''total person'' is taken into consideration when making admissions decisions.

The temporary policy already has some critics, who argue that it will result in a freshman class dominated by white, suburban students whose families could afford to send them to the best-equipped schools and pay for SAT prep courses.

This criticism may be warranted, but we believe the university had no other choice but to implement the temporary admissions policy. Had they rushed a more comprehensive policy, legal issues could easily have been overlooked, and UGA may have once again found itself in court. It's better to take the time and get the final policy right.

No doubt there are some who would argue the university should stick with the streamlined, by-the-books temporary policy. If you believe test scores and grades are the most important aspects of a student, then this would certainly fit your needs.

But, what if you believe there's more to a person than that? Should an applicant who has demonstrated leadership in extracurricular activities and has helped improve the community be denied admission if his or her test score is slightly below that of another applicant who hasn't done anything beyond go to class? Both have the potential to take away a diploma from UGA, but only one is likely to add something to the university while he or she is here. For the university's sake, we hope its final admissions policy considers more than just an applicant's numbers.